It was not a moment too soon.The liquefied substances soon after reached the bottom of the barrier.The stream of lava swelled like a river about to overflow its banks, and threatened to demolish the sole obstacle which could prevent it from overrunning the whole Far West.But the dam held firm, and after a moment of terrible suspense the torrent precipitated itself into Grant Lake from a height of twenty feet.
The colonists, without moving or uttering a word, breathlessly regarded this strife of the two elements.
What a spectacle was this conflict between water and fare! What pen could describe the marvelous horror of this scene--what pencil could depict it?
The water hissed as it evaporated by contact with the boiling lava.The vapor whirled in the air to an immeasurable height, as if the valves of an immense boiler had been suddenly opened.But, however considerable might be the volume of water contained in the lake, it must eventually be absorbed, because it was not replenished, while the stream of lava, fed from an inexhaustible source, rolled on without ceasing new waves of incandescent matter.
The first waves of lava which fell in the lake immediately solidified and accumulated so as speedily to emerge from it.Upon their surface fell other waves, which in their turn became stone, but a step nearer the center of the lake.In this manner was formed a pier which threatened to gradually fill up the lake, which could not overflow, the water displaced by the lava being evaporated.The hissing of the water rent the air with a deafening sound, and the vapor, blown by the wind, fell in rain upon the sea.The pier became longer and longer, and the blocks of lava piled themselves one on another.Where formerly stretched the calm waters of the lake now appeared an enormous mass of smoking rocks, as if an upheaving of the soil had formed immense shoals.Imagine the waters of the lake aroused by a hurricane, then suddenly solidified by an intense frost, and some conception may be formed of the aspect of the lake three hours alter the eruption of this irresistible torrent of lava.